Sexual Politics in the Church of England, 1857-1957

Timothy Willem Jones

Publishes new archival research and provides innovative critical analysis of a continuing crisis in the Church of England

Uncovers a surprising history during which the Church of England successfully negotiated a series of sexual controversies

Rebuts contemporary notions of the Church as an inevitably reactionary institution and shows how it was often at the forefront of sexual change in British society

Reveals how the introduction of female voices into the previously exclusively male spheres of power transformed understandings of gender

Brings analytical techniques developed in the twin historiographies of gender and sexuality to religious history

Sexual Politics in the Church of England, 1857-1957

Timothy Willem Jones

Description

The period between 1857 and 1957 saw a transformation in Anglican sexual understanding when the established church negotiated substantial new normative interpretations of marriage, sexuality, citizenship, and priesthood. Timothy Jones demonstrates how the introduction of female voices into the previously exclusively male spheres of power transformed understandings of gender. He also delineates the impact of the Anglo-Catholic revival on Anglican sexual culture, in particular, the significance of catholic sacramentality on understandings of the relationship between the sexual and the spiritual.

Sexual Politics in the Church of England exposes a surprisingly dynamic and dialogical relationship between theology, feminism, and the new sexual sciences that
resists the teleologies of secularisation that dominate the histories of sexuality and Christianity in Britain. The story of Anglican sexual politics told in this book firmly rebuts contemporary notions of the Church as an inevitably reactionary institution. On the contrary, it reveals the Church's historic capacity to renegotiate gender and sexual ideologies, and shows how it was often at the forefront of sexual change in British society.

Sexual Politics in the Church of England, 1857-1957

Timothy Willem Jones

Author Information

Timothy Jones is lecturer in history and co-director of the Centre for Gender Studies in Wales at the University of Glamorgan. From July 2012 he will also hold an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award at La Trobe University, Melbourne.